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This blog posts a random and evolving set of study guides , plot outlines, discussion questions and critical bibliographies related to the Works of Virginia Woolf.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Annotated Outline of "The Mark on the Wall"

Plot Summary of "The Mark on the Wall" by Virginia Woolf

Grad Seminar, Engl 814, Spring 2000/ 2002E.K. Sparks, Clemson U

#1: january, first notices mark (black on white) Interrupts automatic fancy abt fire. . Describes room "Rather to my relief the sight of the mark interrupted the fancy," why is she relieved to be interrupted? She wants to get out of conventional fairy tale..wants her imagination to get onto something new.. She is imaging the red and black of war-- flag flying; knights riding..

#2: Wonders where mark came from/ why. 1st speculation: Not from a picture, perhaps a miniature: ofà picture of 18thC lady -> (red carnation is a link to red coals..gender switch). Speculates on previous residents who wanted a different style of life— just as she wants to think about something differnt than old fantasy of knights; he felt art should have ideas…(just as Roger and Clive feel that art is not just pretty pictures but an attempt to discover the form behind things. Interesting to think this story is also art wtih ideas) her mind rushes past the memory of home owners as if she was on a train watching old Woman and young man. Train images shows us how life rushes past us so fast, and we only see glimpses of it, which doesn't mean that there isn't more... Train is typically an image of modern life for her-- of the speed of life. Both the old and the new are rushing by so fast it is hard to make sense of them.

HYPOTHESIS #1 -- it's a nail hole

#3: not a nail hole . Too big for that-- almost as if she falls into the hole. (like Alice down the rabbithole) Nobody knows how it got there -> life mystery, the ignorance of man -> tangent about things lost--cats, rats, birdcages and steel skates -> images of falling, being shot through tube, being naked before God; fleeing time and wasted life. – LOSING STUFF—CHAOS OF LIFE (another war image? Being shot out of the gun??)

#4 Meditation on death and rebirth-- Flower stalk, bending over – switch perspectives so person is miniaturized – is she reborn as some kind of small insect? (Forecast snail) Very Kew Gardens here.HYPOTHESIS 2-- it's a bigger hole than that

#6 Tree on window pane. "to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts. To steady myself, let me catch hold of the first idea that passes" --- the method she is trying to pursue in this story. Wants to go deeper -> Shakespeare. Shakespeare is typically representative of the perfect artist whose mind was never impeded by obstacles of thought, personality.Dissatisfied with that train of thought ... SHe wants a train that will reflect well on her (exactly the egotism that Shakespeare avoids)

#7 Invented conversation about botany that ends up with Charles the 1st. Admires self in a mirror. Whole paragraph is about reflections. Also battling with herself about the artist being conscious or self-conscious... How to write personally, subjectiviely without being ego-centric. Images broken image; reflects on reflections, mentions how that is important to novelist. New novel will be about reflection of the depths consciousness, not about description Generalizations-> general (Are all generalizations fascist??) -> idea of how we follow conventions as a child -> Sunday lunches and rules for tablecloths. Ends on idea that masculine point of view has created all these hierarchies which are now somewhat dissolving…Will we be free in the future. Whole section about rose leaf is dealing with the past, and with getting rid of the past (like getting rid og the idea of the knights)

#8: Now she thinks that the mark may be projecting from the wall. Reminds her of a tomb -> antiquaries: the Colonel who wants the site to be a camp (for the military) vs, speaker who wants it to be a tomb.

#9 4th hypothesis—it’s a nail. Now investigates from nail’s point of view. Knowledge through the ages—but so much superstition. Back to the garden image—under water. Everything would be peaceful if only there weren’t so many rules and hierarchies. (World of nature where things flow and change vs. hierarchies and boundaries

#10 I should get up and look (should contact reality) Like Prtufrock, she sits in the chair and imagines tings, really prefers imaginng them to knowing what reality is.

#11: nature wants her to get up so she won’t waste energy on thinking about male power.

#12: nature associated with not thinking; contempt for men of action

#13: Mark as something real which will rescue her mind from traps of imagination -> digression on trees, bucolic life of the country. Tree becomes wood, made into a ship. Interruption—new voice

#14: says it’s going to get a newspaper, curse the war. Defines mark as snail..